Hi all, I would like to submit a modest recommendation for enhancement to JunkMail's send filter handling algorithm. It's quite simple: exclude (wildcard) symbols from pattern recognition. As implemented in my example below, the feature would be entirely optional, backwards compatible, and would not preclude filter rules that already look for specific symbols.
My logic is this: The only way to avoid false positives in many filter rules is to append (or prepend) a space to the filter text. Unfortunately, the offending term is very likely to fall at the beginning or end of the subject where start-of-line, EOL or punctuation -- not a space -- are likely to be. Add to this that the term may well be hyphenated. Sure, you can create separate rules for all of these permutations but a simple symbol exclusion would do the ultimate trick! Consider the term "best" in these e-mail subjects: o The best flashlight ever! o Tidings of joy bestowed upon you (not spam) o This is the best o Be the best! o My boss is the dumbest idiot ever (not spam) o Best-selling DVDs to your front door!!! FilterText "best" produces 4 hits, 0 misses, 2 false positives FilterText " best " produces 1 hit, 3 misses, 0 false positives FilterText "~best~" produces 4 hits, 0 misses, 0 false positives ...where '~' is my recommended "symbol wildcard" and indicates "any symbol or space or start-of-line/end-of-line." Of course, this example is idealized to make a point, but I believe that the benefits are nonetheless obvious. The present JunkMail solution for this particular example requires several rules, including separate rules for ' best ' ' best' 'best!' and 'best-'. Or, you throw out "best" as being too generic and take what you get. I suppose the downside might be CPU load? Whaddya think? Dave -- David M. Delbridge President & CEO Circa 3000 ColdFusion Hosting http://www.circa3k.com 775-832-2445 --- [This E-mail was scanned for viruses by Declude Virus (http://www.declude.com)] --- This E-mail came from the Declude.JunkMail mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.JunkMail". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com.
